Athletics

Ben Johnson, the disgraced Canadian sprinter, withdrew his application to the International Amateur Athletics Federation on Tuesday to have a lifetime ban for drug abuse lifted, after filing a suit in an Ontario court earlier this month to win the right to race again. The court, however, said it will not hear the case until 21 July, postponing any comeback for Johnson for at least another two months. Lawyers for Athletics Canada and the IAAF won the July adjournment, prompting Johnson's representatives to drop their application, though they hope the ban will be lifted if the Canadian court agrees that Johnson's right to earn a living had been violated.

Sergei Bubka, the world pole vault record-holder, has been forced to pull out of Sunday's meeting in Toronto with a nagging Achilles tendon injury, the same problem which prevented him from competing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.